Hello From Columbus, and a towing question

First, Hello from Columbus OH!

After many years of dealing with the euro cars - Volvo, BMW, and a quick stint in Korea with my Hyundai, I am moving on to my fathers favorite brand - Toyota.

My first request to the TW community is to help me best understand my options on getting my 2006 BMW 530xi wagon (which i loved because of its' size and ability to carry numerous boxes with my job and my side volunteer job at a rescue) to Pennsylvania (about 270 miles) for my dads buddy to work on. I have recently purchased a 2009 tacoma access cab, 4cyl, and no towing package pre installed.

My hopes were to rent a vehicle trailer from uHaul, and tow it with an aftermarket, bolt-to-frame CURT Hitch (Class 3), and tow it 6 hours to my family's home in PA. I have read a few figures online stating that although the Hitch is weight rated to carry the curb weight of the vehicle and the uHaul tow, it is well over the 3,500# limit of the stock tacoma without tow package recommended tow ratings.

Should I pay the service of a 3rd party to do a vehicle transport or do you think the Curt hitch with the weights of the vehicle and trailer can handle 270 miles. I know manufacturers obviously recommend less than the vehicles are capable of towing for liability issues, but does anyone have experience with an aftermarket hitch and towing for a decent sized trip on the 4cyl Taco's, or is this a highly non-recommended route to take?

For your consideration:

uHaul Vehicle Trailer Specs:
Capacity

• Max load: 5,290 lbs.
• Gross vehicle weight: 7,500 lbs. max.
• Empty weight: 2,210 lbs.

BMW Curb Weight: 3,638 lbs

Total Towing Weight would be: 5,848

Hope to learn a ton from this forum. Had the truck about a month and love it!

Also - any modifications you guys consider a must, other than a K&N Filter to start?

Thanks in advance!

Will

 

Welcome to TW!

 

No way I'd tow that with your truck. Realistically you're probably over loaded even with a V6 and tow package. Many of those are technically rated for 6500 lbs, but that assumes a 150 lb driver and nothing else in the truck.

Get a friend to drive it, take him home the next day. Or the same day. 270 miles is nothing. Even doing it all in one day is only 810 miles. I've done that and more several times.

Don't waste money on a K&N filter. They don't do anything for performance unless you're running 5000+ rpm's. In other words they may add a couple of HP to a race car. Nothing to most vehicles, and don't filter air as well either.

 

Thank you, Problem is, BMW needs a new engine, its not worth repair at 172,000 miles but my dads buddy owns and runs bimmerbuddies. so they want to play around with it and they have an engine they aren't charging him for. Thank you for the heads up, I was hoping it would be bale to handle it but again, at 230 lbs myself, i feel my engine struggling sometimes

Will

 

Thank you!

Breaks my heart that you are selling gear through RedBubble considering that is what my company does, HOWEVER, we do not offer that on-demand printing that you have to have your factory setup for, so they are actually a better fit for your purpose!

Will be looking at your YouTube channel closely!

 

Welcome! As others have pointed out, that’s too much weight for your truck.

 

Thanks! Yeah I figured I'd start out with Redbubble since they provide all of the materials/shipping/etc. Hopefully I'll be looking to switch things up in the future though.

 

Welcome aboard!